Xenoblade - Did the boss fight between Mt. Valak and Sword Valley. I tried to play it with Dunban, for story reasons, but I lost, so I just stuck Reyn in my party instead of Dunban, used him as a damage sponge, and won without much difficulty.

Still eligible for exactly zero Heart to Hearts.

What the fuck was I playing this time last year... La Mulana and Dark Souls?

Logged

o/` I do not feel joy o/`o/` I do not dream o/`o/` I only stare at the door and smoke o/`

Xenoblade - Did the boss fight between Mt. Valak and Sword Valley. I tried to play it with Dunban, for story reasons, but I lost, so I just stuck Reyn in my party instead of Dunban, used him as a damage sponge, and won without much difficulty.

You might know this, but Dunban is an agility tank. The game is rather level sensitive, but I only had problem with the last boss at level 70 something using Dunban for tanking. And having bare chested Dunban in all the cutscenes is just so satisfying. Man, the last time I liked a male character this much was Auron from FF X.

I finished Castlevania: SotN myself. The game ended up being rather... exploitable. I also kind of wish there were more uses for gimmics and such. The spoiler castle especially was quite fast and basically just a dungeon crawl. It was a very cool idea though, if you don't count that it made my head hurt just a bit.

And I agree, ES has a ton of faults. I was more bashing its nonsense narrative. In general, I felt too many RPGs focused on "big action" than times to just "sit and chat" and flesh out the story. Tales of Vesperia was great for "low action" (ie; pretty shitty 'major event' cutscenes) but a lot of dialogue that worked to flesh the world and its characters.

I can definitely agree with this and I've kind of had an epiphany about the narrative structure in RPGs. The "big action" is kind of just an extra and ultimately not something to write home about. I guess I started thinking this way after playing a bunch of Atelier games, and despite their immense level of cheese and tropes, I still noticed just how much more fun I was actually having than with most of these games with "epic" plots. The latter, after more than just a few dozen RPGs have started to wore off on me. And now I feel like I should play some Grandia or Lunar... I have to consider this, but I'll likely go with Suikoden III as per plan.

Just made it to To Coda Ruins in ES. I specifically remember this dungeon because I took notes on everything that was said, thinking it would be the solution to some puzzle only to not need any of it. I've also been reminded how impressive this game's cast of playable characters is. In terms of gameplay, they're all pretty diverse and most of them are quite useful in the right situation, except maybe Beat and Polka. Beat for obvious reasons and Polka because she's not the best attacker, and let's face it she's not the best healer either.

Ghost Ship.... SO COOL! Maybe my second favorite RPG Ghost Ship ever. First favorite goes to Seiken Densetsu 3, even if the boss was cheap and damn near impossible without a magic user.

The environment of Vesperia's ghost ship was everything a ghost ship should be. The ghost enemies were adorable to boot! Although ghosts probably SHOULD NOT be adorable... I appreciated their cuteness and charm.

Mario 3d-World

Made it to world 4.

IT FEELS SO WEIRD TO PLAY SOMETHING THAT IS NOT AN RPG!!!

I put that in caps to emphasize how foreign and weird I feel playing it....

Very creative levels in this one. Thus far I feel like nothing has been recycled level to level and the game constantly feels fresh.

Xenoblade - Are all the enemies complete damage sponges or am I just playing this wrong?

At the point you sound to be at, right now your damage options kinda suck since you're forced into those anti-mechonis weapons that Dickson sells (which I think are unslotted or have only one gem slot) for everyone not named Shulk. In a short while though you'll start collecting weapons from enemy drops that are much closer to, or on par with, where your equipment should be.

Just made it to To Coda Ruins in ES. I specifically remember this dungeon because I took notes on everything that was said, thinking it would be the solution to some puzzle only to not need any of it. I've also been reminded how impressive this game's cast of playable characters is. In terms of gameplay, they're all pretty diverse and most of them are quite useful in the right situation, except maybe Beat and Polka. Beat for obvious reasons and Polka because she's not the best attacker, and let's face it she's not the best healer either.

I love the music there. I was stoned on painkillers when I played that game (foot infection way back), so all the music sounded brilliant.

And yeah, everything plays really nicely and differently.

I did admire Beat's penchant for rapid-fire and echo building, but only early on (and the bonus dungeon basically makes "getting lots and lots of money" into an in-game joke).

Polka I thought was pretty useful at the end. Her final healing spell has great range and restores a lot (also, I stopped using Chopin by the end... I still can't get used to saying Chopin is in a Japanese game).

I wish I used the twins more; they're definitely the more "technical" attackers, but I wasn't able to keep up with the Party Level's faster and faster countdown.

As soon as Falsetto was available, I went the rest of the game with her; she was probably my most consistent member just for that echo building (a certain item/accessory combo in particular made her build a FULL gauge in one attack in some cases).

While I agree 100% that the cast has great variety, I find their usefullness is placed at different points of the game for sure. Viola kinda has trouble keeping up against some of the better end-game skills other characters have and doesn't build echoes well at all...otherwise though, she's "the mid-game queen". Also Retto falls into this, IMO, as well. He's kind of average, but becomes pretty tough by end-game.

Xenoblade - Are all the enemies complete damage sponges or am I just playing this wrong?

At the point you sound to be at, right now your damage options kinda suck since you're forced into those anti-mechonis weapons that Dickson sells (which I think are unslotted or have only one gem slot) for everyone not named Shulk. In a short while though you'll start collecting weapons from enemy drops that are much closer to, or on par with, where your equipment should be.

At that part of the game, I kept everyone's normal equipment and upgraded Shulk's "Enchant" so you CAN damage Mechon with normal weapons. Later when you get the two-slot Anti-Mechon weapons, I booted him off.

But yeah, in general some enemies can take a while. I enjoyed using Dunban and Melia for their ability to quickly topple enemies (Melia in two attacks; that rod-strike and the one where she does a superman kick).

Xenogears: Been a bit of a mecha kick lately, so a friend recommended this. I've never played it, but so far I'm near the end of the forest dungeon you go to after the village. Anyway, dunno how I feel about it. Since it's 15+ years old, I've had everyone else's impressions of it influence me, so it's hard to have my opinion without thinking of others thoughts on it. The world map theme is lovely, definitely.

Dead Space 2: Started this up tonight just cause I wanted something a little more on the horror side. Also playing on Survivalist, and it's pretty tough. The laundry room was oddly enough my biggest challenge so far. The end of chapter 2 was pretty awesome to boot. Just encountered the Swarm and they freaked me out enough that I had to change my underwear.

Rune Factory 4: Hitting the point where I can't just grind to get past enemies, I have to make sure my equipment is up to snuff. Which is to say, it aint right now. But I got an Iron Hammer, so I'm gonna mine the fuck out of some colorful rocks. Also gonna pet some chickens and give Dylas a fish every day until he loves me.

I was going to use Enchant instead of the anti-mechon stuff except Shulk doesn't like using it when he's on AI. Anyway, did stuff in Ft. Galahad. Everyone's around level 49.

--- edit ---

Dark Souls - Not expecting the Gaping Dragon to be too tough -- I got it down to around 50% health by kind of half-assing things, also I accidentally drank like three shots of Five Hour Energy instead of 1, whupz -- but I wanna get its tail weapon and its tail wasn't really dropping and I pretty much ONLY attached its tail. >:T

I sort of want FFIVDS for some reason.

Anyway, I need to get a new memory card so I can dump whatever, uh, booter thingy on it I need to play Shadow Tower Abyss. Except it's cold out so maybe I'll just lie here on the floor.

« Last Edit: January 18, 2014, 11:00:29 AM by MeshGearFox »

Logged

o/` I do not feel joy o/`o/` I do not dream o/`o/` I only stare at the door and smoke o/`

Not so much Salsa, but I've been getting some serious mileage out of March. Solar Flare is great at maintaining an Echo count and Full-Moon Bind works on quite a few bosses, making them so much easier to deal with.=================So a game I've been dabbling with at night for the past year or so is Final Fantasy IV: Complete Collection. The reason I don't play too often is because I'm a bit confused. Others have assured me the game isn't any more difficult, but I've played multiple other versions at least a dozen times and I certainly don't remember enemies hitting as hard as they do in CC, or healing spells healing so little.

So a game I've been dabbling with at night for the past year or so is Final Fantasy IV: Complete Collection. The reason I don't play too often is because I'm a bit confused. Others have assured me the game isn't any more difficult, but I've played multiple other versions at least a dozen times and I certainly don't remember enemies hitting as hard as they do in CC, or healing spells healing so little.

After failing to get a shred of enjoyment from XIII-2 I was considering IV the complete collection for the after years. I played through the original IV last year and had loads of fun. The after years content is totally on deck for me this year at some point. But I am a wee too engaged with Tales of Vesp to jump ship now.

Anyhow, I found the complete collection IV to be adequately challenging myself for better half of the game. By the end, the difficulty was waaaaay easier than the original but for a good while I thought it was really tough.

Mario 3d-World/ World 6. Not one moment of boredom whilst playing yet... good stuff... peach is the most fun to play as. I wish water in real life looked like mario water. Not much else to say about it.

Got this with my Vita. Finished the main story. Still only near the beginning of the post game. My characters are only around the level 300 mark. I think I prefer playing Disgaea games on handheld over consoles. I have played the game before for PS3 but had stopped at the end of the main story. I probably prefer 1 and 4 more but it is still a great game. Rutile, one of the new Vita characters has to be the most boring character in any NIS game though. Not that she is a bad character, she is just really bland compared to the quirkyness of everyone else.

For whoever is playing Xenogears, stick with it. It's completely worth it for the story. I personally loved the gameplay but Ive been hearing some people say it sucks lately, so I guess in that aspect it's a love it or hate it thing.

Alright done with Ratchet and Clank 2 , awesome game though it had a rather big difficulty spike in the end, the game can be quite grindy if you want to have all the weapons.

Starting FF XIII soon now that I got myself a ps3, I HAVE TO SEE IT WITH MY OWN EYES. I have my expectations in check. And for whoever says that having important lore on databases is bad storytelling, I completely disagree. It would be awkward to have some of that information being told to your character even though the character is part of that world and should be familiar with it's rules. It cuts on the so called poor storytelling through over exposition(which again doesnt really hinder my enjoyment of the story but I do appreciate good executions narrative wise aswell).

Meh, a lot things said about FF XIII was complete bs. Most importantly the stuff that was said about getting through the game by just mashing X. This was in my opinion the hardest Final Fantasy game to date. The only real problem I had was simply the horrible pace of it and how limited access to stuff it gives you (i.e. the weapon upgrade system) and perhaps its destructured narrative (thinking something like Xenosaga here). I just played chapter or half every day before bedtime until I get to the better parts. Not a great game, but certainly not the worst either.

Which reminds me to mention I decided to go and attempt to finish this masterpiece called Hyperdimension Neptunia. I'm going to try and get the good and true ends, bad end seems like a hassle for some reason. Now this game has some really bad RPG design in it, but I have somehow become desensitized to it. Playing this makes me appreciate the actually decent rpgs all the more.

I absolutely love the Xenosaga trilogy, I dont think the narrative is that loose(at all in fact). If you play them all back to back, it's a pretty solid and consistent story(some gaps are filled in the database inside the games but blame Namco from interfering in their original plan.).